This interesting machine is a Haval M2, as seen early in the morning at a car market in Beijing. The M2 was in fine shape and painted in a color called Titanium White. The chrome was shiny as new and the alloys are original.
The Haval M2 was the successor of the Great Wall Coolbear. The Coolbear debuted in 2009. It received heavy flak because it looked way too much like a first-generation Scion xB. Great Wall didn’t like that one bit, and in 2010 they came up with a redesigned version.
It was jacked-up, with a new front and rear, and it was positioned as a cross-car, with wide wheel arches and lots of black plastic cladding. Most importantly, it was moved from the Great Wall brand to the then-new Haval brand. So the Great Wall Coolbear became the Haval M2. The M2 received a facelift in 2012 and was manufactured until 2015. The car we have here is a post-facelift version.
The interior was largely unchanged from the Coolbear, and still looked similar to the Scion’s interior. It was a funky place, with a central dial atop the dashboard, large air vents, and a radio CD player in the center stack. The owner of this particular car added seat covers and a steering wheel cover.
The bench was loaded with boxes containing all sorts of home-decoration stuff, including parts for a shower. Thanks to its boxy shape, the Haval M2 has a lot of easy-to-use space inside.
The roof rails were factory standard. The Haval M2 was a front-wheel drive car. Power came from a naturally aspirated 1.5-liter gasoline engine with an output of 106 hp and 138 Nm. The M2 wasn’t a quick car: its top speed was 158 km/h and 0-100 took 11.9 seconds. Size: 4011/1744/1720, 2499.
Because of its troubled beginnings, the Haval M2 never sold in great numbers on the Chinese car market, and it is a very rare sight on the road today. The old motor doesn’t comply with the new emission standard in Beijing, so many have been scrapped or sold to other provinces. I always liked the M2, at the time, Great Wall was trying out all sorts of vehicles and brands, from sedans to tiny hatchbacks to their well-known SUVs.